Graduate Program Aiming to Sharpen After-School Skills

Recognizing the increasing role that after-school and summer learning programs play in raising student achievement, Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, has created a graduate-level certificate in “out-of-school-time learning.”

The university’s Center for Summer Learning, part of the school of education, will administer the 15-credit program, which is intended to help fill the need for highly skilled providers of after-school programs.

“We are on the front end of a trend where we expect increased demand for professionals to manage out-of-school-time programs,” Jennifer Brady, the director of professional development at the center, said in a press release about the program, which starts in January.

The Afterschool Alliance, a Washington-based advocacy group, estimates that 6.5 million students are in after-school programs.

And Ellen S. Gannett, the director of the Wellesley, Mass.-based National Institute on Out-of-School Time, said there is a need for academic credentials in after-school learning.

She said she was glad Johns Hopkins was joining institutions that are “taking the lead in professionalizing this emerging field.” Lesley University, in Cambridge, Mass., offers a similar program.

The Johns Hopkins program, which can be combined with another certificate to earn a master’s degree, will focus on blending management skills from the nonprofit sector with strategies that contribute to academic success and youth development.